Impeller wedge against ground target

aairfccha wrote:The tower did not sound like a small target either and to match the collateral damage of several megatons you have to throw quite a bit of stuff around. Also within limits, wedge strength and size might be adjustable.

Strength... maybe. Doubtful, but maybe. Size, no. Yes, the tower is large, but it ain't *that* big. A pinnace wedge is several kilometers wide and long (probably bigger than a missile wedge, which is a square 10km on a side), whereas the tower *might* be, at most, a kilometer wide and tall, and most likely smaller than that in the width department.

Let's not even talk about atmospheric effects of operating a wedge in an atmosphere, aside from the aforementioned SAMs (whose wedge is most likely a few tens of meters wide, but probably *very* short-lived... like a few seconds at most*). As surmised by Jonathan, pinnaces (or assault shuttles, or anything else larger than a SAM) don't use their wedges in atmosphere.

*Long enough for a pinnace pilot to see the incoming and try to generate a miss, and for the wedge to slice off the forward end of said pinnace.

This post has made me have a thought. I searched the forums using the search engine but didn't see anything discussed regarding this in the past:
What prevents a wedge being used in the defense role of a ground target?
I thought I read somewhere that wedges don't work in atmo but that is disproved by the wedge powered SAM, so I may not have read that.
If this was adressed, either in pearls or info dumps or on the forums could you please point me to it?

If not, except for destroying all things around it, this area defended by the wedge should be inpenetrable, as long as power exists.

Being the inteeligent people you all are, I am sure someone will come up with a way, besides destroying the planet around it (or the dreaded, dun dun dunnn, GRAVELANCE!

Of cousre both the wedge and the [b]GRAVELANCE[/b would have to be modified, but I think it could be...
Or did I miss somthing somewhere?
Thank you

Commodore Oakius wrote:This post has made me have a thought. I searched the forums using the search engine but didn't see anything discussed regarding this in the past:
What prevents a wedge being used in the defense role of a ground target?

You mean besides the highly concentrated gravity gradient that would suck in and destroy air molecules for kilometers around? And of course the shock waves coming off it as the molecules are accelerated beyond the speed of sound, by a couple of magnitudes.

Besides the fact that there's no textev anywhere of a wedge with only a single plane, which means you would have half above the target you want to protect, and half below, which, if you're protecting a ground target, might have implications for said ground?

Besides the fact that you need an impeller *ring* to generate a wedge - two if you wish to have the same kind of protection as a warship or freighter? The outer layer can be analysed and the frequencies can be compensated for to allow penaids to work, but you can't analyse the inner layer through the outer, thus preventing anything getting through (besides the grav gradient).

Commodore Oakius wrote:I thought I read somewhere that wedges don't work in atmo but that is disproved by the wedge powered SAM, so I may not have read that.

Oh, they work just fine in an atmosphere. There's just a *slight* environmental issue when you do that.[/sarcasm]

Commodore Oakius wrote:If this was adressed, either in pearls or info dumps or on the forums could you please point me to it?

As far as I know, it hasn't been, until now.

Commodore Oakius wrote:If not, except for destroying all things around it, this area defended by the wedge should be inpenetrable, as long as power exists.

Correct, although that "except for destroying all things around it" might cause someone somewhere to raise an objection.

Commodore Oakius wrote:Being the inteeligent people you all are, I am sure someone will come up with a way, besides destroying the planet around it (or the dreaded, dun dun dunnn, GRAVELANCE!

No such thing as a "gravelance", except inasmuch as the GRAVlance ought to be *in* a GRAVE.

Commodore Oakius wrote:Of cousre both the wedge and the [b]GRAVELANCE[/b would have to be modified, but I think it could be...
Or did I miss somthing somewhere?
Thank you

There is no textev that indicates anything like this is possible. Of course, David is always free to add previously unmentioned research into this sort of defensive emplacement, but I kinda doubt he will.

Commodore Oakius wrote:This post has made me have a thought. I searched the forums using the search engine but didn't see anything discussed regarding this in the past:
What prevents a wedge being used in the defense role of a ground target?
I thought I read somewhere that wedges don't work in atmo but that is disproved by the wedge powered SAM, so I may not have read that.
If this was adressed, either in pearls or info dumps or on the forums could you please point me to it?

If not, except for destroying all things around it, this area defended by the wedge should be inpenetrable, as long as power exists.

Being the inteeligent people you all are, I am sure someone will come up with a way, besides destroying the planet around it (or the dreaded, dun dun dunnn, GRAVELANCE!

Of cousre both the wedge and the [b]GRAVELANCE[/b would have to be modified, but I think it could be...
Or did I miss somthing somewhere?
Thank you

GRAVlances don't do a thing to wedges - they knock down sidewalls.

It has been established that planet based gravitic shielding exists. From what little I can recall some of it is based on tractor/pressor tech, others might, like the ones used to protect Mount Royal be sidewall derivatives. I've always thought that it would be closer to particle screen myself, although particle screen might be based on tractor tech, or vice versa.

Theemile wrote:GRAVlances don't do a thing to wedges - they knock down sidewalls.

Yeah, for that you need the Crippler...

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I'll get me hat...

Is a freighter civilian wedge one side or two sides but singular? The crippler worked on the civilian wedge because it wasn't a dual wedge system like on military ships. This always confused me.

A bubble sidewall might work on a planet, it is gravatic but likely would have less effect on the atmosphere, than someone shooting at the planet, or a wedge. Plus most of the atmosphere would be inside the bubble.

Of course the Force could defeat the star wars planetary shield so...

I always thought the idea of a Superdreadnaught with its wedge up (or without really) smacking into a planet at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light would be a pretty horrific doomsday weapon. IE the planetary crust breaking up doomsday weapon.

Lord Skimper wrote:Is a freighter civilian wedge one side or two sides but singular? The crippler worked on the civilian wedge because it wasn't a dual wedge system like on military ships. This always confused me.

A bubble sidewall might work on a planet, it is gravatic but likely would have less effect on the atmosphere, than someone shooting at the planet, or a wedge. Plus most of the atmosphere would be inside the bubble.

Of course the Force could defeat the star wars planetary shield so...

Warships have a wedge with a double layer sandwich-2 wedge stress layers and between the layers is a sidewall. so each of the 2 wedges (above and below) are a sandwich of 3 layers.

On a civilian drive there is no sandwich, just the single stress band above and below the ship.

Lord Skimper wrote:A bubble sidewall might work on a planet, it is gravatic but likely would have less effect on the atmosphere, than someone shooting at the planet, or a wedge. Plus most of the atmosphere would be inside the bubble.

Book 2 - Honor of the Queen has something to say about that idea.

Honor of the Queen wrote:“I don’t think they could have turned Blackbird into any kind of real fortress,” Matthews said quickly. “Not unless they can generate a sidewall bubble around a moon eight thousand kilometers in diameter.” He looked questioningly at Honor, and she shook her head.
“No, Sir. Not even Manticore can work miracles yet,” she said dryly.

Admittedly that's a damn big moon; over twice the diameter of Earth's. But its still smaller that most habitable planets are likely to be. So if its a "miracle" to shield the moon its even less possible to throw a bubble sidewall around a planet.